Self Portrait Tuesday

That's me...sitting in a pile of Ginkgo leaves at about two years old. The Ginkgo tree has become a favorite of mine. It's such a beautiful tree with green leaves in the Spring and golden leaves falling in Autumn. Last year we planted my very own Ginkgo tree and I am anxious to see Spring leaves. Ginkgo or Maidenhair Tree is apparently 150 million years old according to fossil records. Amazing. It's related to firs and is hearty in cold climates, fortunately. This was actually one of my concerns before moving to PA. I knew I had to have a Ginkgo planted in my yard. Thankfully, I got my wish when my parents and sis-in law got me one for my birthday last year.

And now a poem by John Ashbery:

Some Trees

These are amazing: each

Joining a neighbor, as though speech

Were a still performance.

Arranging by chance
To meet as far this morning

From the world as agreeing

With it, you and I

Are suddenly what the trees try
To tell us we are:

That their merely being there

Means something; that soon

We may touch, love, explain.

And glad not to have invented

Some comeliness, we are surrounded:

A silence already filled with noises,

A canvas on which emerges
A chorus of smiles, a winter morning.

Place in a puzzling light, and moving,

Our days put on such reticence

These accents seem their own defense.